Holden Caulfield is the 17-year-old^[1] protagonist of author J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. He is universally recognized for his resistance to growing older and desire to protect childhood innocence. Since the book's 1951 publication, Holden has become an icon for teenage rebellion and angst, and now stands among the most important characters of 20th-century American literature. The name Holden Caulfield, as shown below, was used in an unpublished short story written in 1942 and first appeared in print in 1945.

Although it is thought by some that J.D. Salinger got the name for Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye when he saw a marquee for Dear Ruth (1947), starring William Holden and Joan Caulfield, Salinger's first Holden Caulfield story, "I'm Crazy," appeared in Collier's on December 22, 1945, a year and a half before this movie came out.^[2]

Appearance and personality[link]

One of Holden's most striking and quintessential qualities is his powerful revulsion for "phony" qualities, a catch all term for all the hypocrisy that infuriates Holden. It is this cynicism that consequently causes him to distance himself from other people. Despite Holden's strong disdain for phony qualities, he exhibits some of the qualities that he abhors, thereby making him a somewhat tragic character. Holden is very much a character of contradiction; At six feet, two-and-a-half inches, he is tall for his age and already has some gray hair, though he himself admits that he acts more like a 13-year-old than an adult. He continually fails classes and calls himself "dumb", yet he shows intelligence through his reasonably articulate narration.

[edit] In The Catcher in the Rye

Holden Caulfield is the narrator and main character of The Catcher in the Rye. The novel recounts the days following Caulfield's expulsion from Pencey Prep, a university preparatory school based loosely on Valley Forge Military Academy, Salinger's alma mater. Caulfield tells his story in cynical and jaded language, often using disparaging language and profanity. He appears as an unstable character that changes his mind easily and very often.

In other works[link]

The character, as Holden Morrisey Caulfield, also appears in Salinger's "Slight Rebellion off Madison", published in the December 21, 1946 issue of The New Yorker. An earlier version of this story, titled "Are You Banging Your Head Against a Wall?" was accepted for publication by The New Yorker in October 1941, but was not published then because editors found the tone to be too desolate for its readership. An edited version of this short story later became the basis of several chapters in the middle-late section of The Catcher in the Rye dealing with Caulfield's date with Sally Hayes, during which he confesses his desire to run away with her, he meets Carl Luce for drinks, and he makes a drunken phone call to the Hayes home. Unlike the similar sequence in the novel, Caulfield is on a Christmas break from school, and, in the story, the interlude with Sally is split into two occurrences. Also, the meeting with Carl Luce is considerably briefer in the story than in the novel.

Caulfield also figures as a character in the short story "I'm Crazy", published in Colliers (December 22, 1945), and other members of the Caulfield family are featured in "Last Day of the Last Furlough", published in The Saturday Evening Post (July 15, 1944) and the unpublished short stories "The Last and Best of the Peter Pans" (c. 1942) and "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls" (c. 1945).

"I'm Crazy" is closely related to what would become the first chapter of The Catcher in the Rye. It begins with Caulfield standing on a hill at "Pencey Prep" watching a football game below, and develops as Holden visits with his history teacher, Mr. Spencer, for a talk about his expulsion from school and his future. Several other details match those found in the first chapter of Catcher, including a reference to the mother of one of Caulfield's schoolmates and to his own mother sending him a gift of ice skates, but the story ends with his returning home instead of running away from school. Once home, he is not shown confronting his parents, who, according to the maid, are playing bridge. Instead, he goes to speak to Phoebe. Their dialogue is similar to what appears in the later chapters of The Catcher in the Rye. Also notable is that sister Viola gets her first, and only, mention in the Caulfield saga.

Caulfield family in other works[link]

"Last Day /tm/of the Last Furlough" relates the final day of Babe Gladwaller before he leaves to fight in World War II. Gladwaller spends part of the day with his little sister before Vincent Caulfield (later renamed D.B. in the novel) arrives. At that point Vincent is a fellow soldier about to leave for the war. Vincent announces that his brother, Holden, has been declared missing in action. Gladwaller's relationship with his younger sister can be seen as a parallel to Caulfield's relationship with Phoebe.

"The Last and Best of the Peter Pans" relates the story of Vincent's (D.B.) draft questionnaire being hidden by his mother. The events occur just after the death of Kenneth (later renamed Allie) and reveal the anxiety of Mary Moriarity, an actress and Caulfield's mother. The story is notable for the appearance of Phoebe and Vincent's statements about a child crawling off a cliff.

In "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls," Vincent (D.B.) recalls the day his brother Kenneth (Allie) died. The story is set at the Caulfield summer home on Cape Cod. Several details make their way from this story into Catcher, including the characterization of Allie; Allie's poetry-inscribed left-handed baseball mitt; Vincent's girlfriend, Helen, who keeps her kings in the back row (like Jane Gallagher); and Caulfield's critical view of others. While the cause of death in "Catcher" is leukemia, here it is due to an unspecified heart condition. Toward the end of the story, Kenneth and Vincent are on the beach. Kenneth decides to go swimming and is knocked out by a wave. Holden, just home from camp, is waiting on the porch with his suitcases as Vincent comes back with Kenneth's unconscious body. Kenneth passes away later the same night. The story was reportedly sold to a magazine, only to be taken back by Salinger before publication.

Another short story of note with relationship to Caulfield is "The Boy in the People Shooting Hat," which was submitted to The New Yorker sometime between 1948 and 1949 but was never published. It focuses on a fight between two characters named Bobby and Stradlater over Bobby's feelings about Jane Gallagher. This story likely forms the basis for several key scenes in the first several chapters of The Catcher in the Rye.

Cultural impact[link]

Holden Caulfield is one of the most enduring characters in 20th century American fiction.

• The Catcher in the Rye is required reading in many high school English courses today, although it has been banned from some school libraries by parent and teacher groups opposed to its use of profanity and perceived glorification of rebellion.
• Holden was influential in the lives of, among others, Mark David Chapman,^[3] the former mental patient who murdered John Lennon in 1980.
• In the episode "The Return" of the TV show Dilbert, a tech support agent calls himself 'Holdem Callfielder'.
• In an episode of the TV show Family Guy, primary character Brian is remarked upon as being fond of Caulfield as proof of his pretentious and immature personality by Quagmire, who describes Caulfield as "a spoiled brat". A red haired, unnamed character obsessed with "phoniness" also appears on the show, spray-painting "PHONY" on Peter's car after seeing him pretending to play a keyboard in a toy store.
• In The Offspring's album Ignition (1992), the song 'Get it Right' has lyrics that says "Like Holden Caulfield".
• In Green Day's album Kerplunk (1992), there is a song called 'Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?'
• In Screeching Weasel's album How to Make Enemies and Irritate People, there is a song called "I Wrote Holden Caulfield".
• The first draft of the Star Wars novel Red Harvest by Joe Schreiber contained a character named Middish Sunblade, modeled after Holden Caulfield, but was removed from the rewrite.^[4]
• In the comic strip Frazz, Frazz's best friend is an 8-year-old named Caulfield, apparently after Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye. He is an emulation of Holden, as he is always reading books that are above his grade level, such as Catch-22, The Old Man and the Sea, and Tourist Season. He also speaks out in class, asking odd questions (i.e. "If horses don't really like spurs, why do barbed wires keep them in?") when his teacher asks if anyone has any questions about the lessons.
• In the 2002 black comedy-drama film "The Good Girl," the film's protagonist, Thomas "Holden" Worther (portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal), constantly has his nose in “The Catcher in the Rye” and claims that his own life parallels that of Holden Caulfield.
• Streetlight Manifesto's song "Here's to Life," mentions Holden Caulfield as one of the several suicidal people included in the song.
• Ben Affleck's character in Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy is named Holden after Holden Caulfield.
• In Mr. Motherfucking eXquire's verse on the remix of his song Huzzah! (featuring Despot, Das Racist, Danny Brown, and El-P), he raps, "Still lost as Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye."
• In Grow Up, the Protagonist, Jasper, says "I am Holden Caulfield, only less reckless, and more attractive" ^[5]

Quotations[link]

"The boy himself is too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it." — Original jacket copy (J.D. Salinger?)^[6]

External links[link]

Salinger's uncollected short stories

• Slight Rebellion off Madison.
• In Japan, most of the short stories are already translated into Japanese (compiled in two volumes) and still commercially available with the approval of Salinger's agents (ISBN 4-7521-0001-0 / ISBN 4-7521-0002-9). Even Hapworth 16, 1924 is available (ISBN 4-7521-0004-5).

Fan sites

• Dead Caulfields, A fan site with information on Salinger's works, including details about the uncollected and/or unpublished shorts stories.
• The Catcher in the Rye - and related matters

References[link]